Book Club reader review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

To submit your reader review, just send 300 words as a text document on the last thing you read, new or old, sci-fi, fantasy, comic-book or horror, to james.hoare@imagine-publishing.co.uk, and it could not only appear here but might make it into the magazine!

There are very few books that transcend genre and captivate everyone with their truly unique and entrancing story. Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is one of the rarities.

This is the tale of a man called Shadow, a large and seemingly slow-thinking individual, who is released from a prison to find that not only is his former life gone, but the world that he has known his entire life is actually full of strange gods that have immigrated to America in hopes of making a living (if it can be called that).

Amidst the riveting narrative there are incredibly insightful glances into the history and the legend of the world’s gods, for some have been popular in mythology that is still somewhat remembered in the contemporary world and some are remnants of past subjects of worship that practically no one alive has any knowledge of (Neil Gaiman is one of the few who does).

Ancient Egypt is represented, as well as our Norse mythological friends (or enemies depending on your perspective), and the old gods meet up with new gods of technology and media and TV, which currently enthrall modern society (especially in the US).

This mysterious and thrilling tale of Shadow and the American Gods is unlike anything ever written or undertaken, and this could very well be one of those books that you put down and declare is one of the best you’ve ever read.

Neil Gaiman is currently on an American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition book tour, and this author’s preferred text contains some 10,000 or so more words to embellish the story. Read the original or the author’s preferred version, but above all, make sure that you read American Gods!